The purpose of this short writing assignment (2 pages) is to begin the process of meeting human needs through promoting justice. This journey begins with reflection as students begin to really observe the world around them beginning with home. This assignment will give students an opportunity to begin collecting and synthesizing information from their immediate environment, looking for marginalized communities, and writing short, succinct, scholarly essays.
The format of the paper is as follows:
First half of page 1Without repeating or re-wording the assignment task, define/describe your neighborhood or community. For example, what is it called, where is it located, what is it like, etc?
Second half of the page 1Explain what kind of people live there and also document this fact using data like statistics and/or qualitative details (one or two total in-text, APA citations for this section). Next, choose a non-dominant group in the neighborhood/community that could easily be overlooked when discussing it. What group would that be? What is their relationship to the neighborhood/community? Discuss.
First half of page 2Explain three distinct problems/challenges (which can be about crime, violence, public safety, mass incarceration, juvenile delinquency; or other challenges such as affordable housing, mental health challenges, unemployment, etc.) that face your specific neighborhood/community, and document these challenges using a total of three in-text, APA citations. For example, if you are from Far Rockaway, your goal is to include information about your specific community (as opposed to generic information about Queens, New York City, the state or the country). When discussing the problems, use statistics and/or details from scholarly publications or news articles only (not websites).
Second half of page 2Recommend a plan that could be used to mobilize others to address one of the aforementioned problems of this neighborhood/community. Discuss both strengths and weaknesses of the communitys ability to implement your recommendation.
